‘Unrivaled’ Partner Distribution Solution providers are key to scaling Microsoft’s generative AI for businesses, according to partners themselves as well as industry observers. Dan Ives, managing director of equity research at Los Angeles- based financial services firm Wedbush Securities, told CRN that “partners hold the key to spreading the gospel and ultimately getting pen on paper to deals” involving generative AI. “Getting partners bought in on the ChatGPT/AI strategy on cloud is integral to what I view as just a golden opportunity for Nadella and team over the coming years,” Ives said. “Microsoft’s partner distribution is unrivaled. In other words, I view that as a huge asset for them in this arms race that’s going on.” Ives—who forecasts an upcoming $800 billionAI spending wave over the next decade—sees generativeAI as more than just hype. In research notes for Wedbush, he estimates that AI will comprise up to 10 percent of overall IT budgets in 2024, compared with about 1 percent in 2023.
the planet to achieve more.” Nicole Dezen, Microsoft’s chief partner officer and corporate vice president of the Global Partner Solutions group, told CRN after Inspire that she hopes solution providers see Microsoft’s commitment to not onlyAI, but to partner success and enablement. “Microsoft only wins when partners and customers succeed,” Dezen said. “It’s core to our mission. And so we were very inten- tional in making so many big investments this year in all things partner—everything from the program itself, all the way through to specializations and designations to really shore up training capability.” Microsoft investments and incentives “are meaningful dollars to help partners go deliver fast time-to-value for customers because that’s where the truth is. That is the measure of success. When customers are realizing value, then we’re all successful,” she said. More than 9,400 customers use Azure OpenAI Service, mak- ing it the fastest-growing Azure service in the technology’s history, according to Microsoft. And 9,100 partners transact on Azure AI.
More than 2,300 of those partners transact on Azure OpenAI, accord- ing to Microsoft. Partners have also activated thou- sands of customers on core Azure migration and modernization scenarios. Azure OpenAI Service, GitHubCopilot and Sales Copilot are examples of currently available Microsoft generative AI
And he sees genera- tive AI giving Microsoft and its ecosystem greater leadership in cloud com- puting. By most measures it sits in the No. 2 posi- tion behind Amazon Web Services and ahead of Google Cloud.
‘Our partner ecosystem, the uniqueness of what you all represent, really is what gets me most excited. It’s a map of the world. We can reach every community in every country in every sector of the economy, both public and private.’ — Microsoft Chairman, CEO Satya Nadella, talking about generative AI at Inspire
Ives expects Microsoft’s cloud total addressable market to expand by up to 40 percent over the next decade thanks to generative AI. “I would compare it to Nadella’s vision when he took over as CEO and morphed Microsoft through Azure into a cloud behemoth,” he said. “I would compare it to that in terms of this transformation.” Microsoft Invests In Partners At Inspire 2023, multiple Microsoft executives addressed the need for solution providers to implement Copilot and other generative AI tools. Nadella called the spread of generativeAI “a collective mission” for Microsoft and its partners. “There’s no question the opportunity is tremendous,” Nadella said during his keynote address. “And our partner ecosystem, the uniqueness of what you all represent, really is what gets me most excited. It’s a map of the world. We can reach every community in every country in every sector of the economy, both public and private.That’s what’s exciting. ... In the last six months, as I’ve been going to different parts of the world, talking to lots of you, what’s unbelievable is the rate of diffusion of this technology. Thanks to all your capability, [that] is what’s most exciting about this particular revolution and platform shift, and that’s what really grounds us in our mission to empower every person and every organization on
offerings. Other generative AI offerings such as the more broad Microsoft 365 Copilot do not have launch dates yet. However, Microsoft did announce at Inspire that the M365 Copilot will cost $30 per user, per month, for buyers of Microsoft 365 E3, E5, Business Standard and Business Premium licenses. PowerAutomate Process Mining—anAI-infused Microsoft offering for process improvement through automation and low-code apps—is scheduled for general availability on Aug. 1. Copilot in SharePoint is expected to roll out in November. And Microsoft already provides a wide variety of resources for channel partners withAI practices, such as training, education and an assortment of programs and initiatives.These include the Data andAI Industry PartnerActivation Kit, which equips partners with reference architectures, application demonstrations and solution accelerators. The cloud service provider also has MicrosoftAzure specializations to validate partner abilities and an Azure Analytics and AI Acceler- ate Program to provide support to partners across all sales stages. More than 200 partners already met the prerequisites for the Build and Modernize AI Apps with Microsoft Azure specialization at launch, according to the vendor. Some of the biggest partner news out of Inspire included the rechristening of the Microsoft Cloud Partner Program—unveiled
7
AUGUST 2023
Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker